


Red Like Roses

by CardboarianNights



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Death Blossom being goddamn literal, Gabe is 35, Jesse is 35, M/M, Plant Monster!Reaper, Red like roses..., alternative universe where jesse is older when he joins blackwatch, and no it's not Gabe's death to change him into reaper that it's being used..., there's a death warning tag being used on this for a reason
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 06:29:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9422504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CardboarianNights/pseuds/CardboarianNights
Summary: Talon shoots Gabriel, in the early years of Overwatch, with a bullet that makes vines grow out of the skin on his scars, and obviously it's a failure since it doesn't kill him (merely annoys him). Jesse McCree, Gabe's right hand man and lover, finds enjoyment in trimming the vines off his commander and they both find beauty in the red flowers that blossom on the vines, one flower for each scar.Jesse likes to call them 'Death Blossoms'.





	

Gabriel Reyes was never one for plants, was pretty shitty at taking care of them until he got infected by a biohazard bullet, one of Talon’s older toys of war that quickly were tossed aside by the group since they rarely ever worked, except for the fucking one that hit him. Angela and the other doctors figured they were trying to make a toxic plant imbed its DNA into his DNA to kill him but it instead got fucked up cause of the super soldier serum. Now, Reyes was a walking mess with thorny vines trailing out of the opening of his clothing with little red flowers blossoming on them on his worst days, the vines whipping around like they had a mind of their own but caused him no pain when he snipped them off from his skin.

He normally trimmed the vines sprouting off his arms and legs in the morning before showering since they grew regardless if he was stressed out or not. The vines on his back weren't interested in branching out but liked to fold over to make ‘art’, as the thirty-five year gunslinger, Jesse McCree, liked to put it when Gabe enlisted him into trimming his back once a week.

Jesse snapped a picture of Gabriel's back, much to his commander's annoyance, before slipping his phone back into his back pocket, pleased as punch. Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose as he bit back a sharp quip he really wanted to make about McCree’s fetish of taking pictures of his ‘back art’ and posting it to Instagram, wanting to ‘document’ the ‘vine patterns’, as he said.

“Yer death blossoms are lookin’ pretty nice, Gabe.” Jesse chuckled in amusement as he got to work, Gabriel sitting shirtless in his bathroom on a small crate while McCree was behind him, wearing his usual Blackwatch hoodie and sweatpants plus his usual hat. The vines branching out from the scars on his arms and legs shifted on the floor, McCree not even phased by the movement of them on the tile flooring since he always wore his heaviest boots for trimmings.

Gabriel sighed heavily as he leaned forward on the crate, arms resting on his knees. “Could you not call them that, McCree? That’s probably the worst name you came up for them so far.”

Light classical music played from the speakers in the bathroom to help keep Gabriel calm, part of his treatment to lower stress so the vines wouldn't run rampant and knock him out. Gabriel wondered if Talon was playing the waiting game with the DNA poisoning, hoping the plants drain him enough that he will be easier to finish off, as easily as you could kill a super soldier, at least. The vines did have their uses for both combat and recon but it wasn't really preferable to not having the fucking things in the first place. Well, at least his skin didn't turn green or anything.

Jesse snipped away at the vines with professional trimmers and wore gardening gloves to keep from cutting himself on the thrones. The cowboy had a bad habit of getting cut by the vines when he brushed past Reyes in the halls but both of them always carried mini first aid kits on their belts for stuff like that since Overwatch couldn't make heads or tails of how to undo the whole thing, even when they did managed to get the bullet out. Gabe’s internal organs were fine, the vines literally sprouted from his skin where scar tissue was present but thankfully his face and neck was spared of having vines growing out of it.

The thin vines dropped to the floor as Jesse was pretty much an expert of trimming them efficiently after five years of experience. He would usually refrain from speaking, most likely to keep the vines at his feet calm as he worked on cleaning up Gabe’s back. It was things like this that helped Gabriel stay sane in Blackwatch with all the shit he had to deal with and McCree, being his right hand man for ten years, made it all more bearable that wasn't exactly appropriate between commander and subordinate; something they both figured Jack turned the other cheek at since life sucked enough for Reyes as it was by being genetically half plant now.

Gabriel felt himself smile a little bit as he felt McCree messing with his beanie in a way that he knew he wouldn't try to strangle the cowboy later. Jesse liked pinning the red flowers (identified as some flower from a cactus that he couldn't remember, according to the Overwatch scientists) to his beanie with hairpins without ruining the flower in the process regardless of its lack of stem. Gabe didn't want them in his hair since he buzzed the side recently and it would look stupid to have ten red flowers pinned in the strip of hair on his head. The beanie was pretty much the only place he would let Jesse place them but he always saved flower number eleven to pin to the brim of his hat.

“Gabe? Your vines are tryin’ to hogtie me again.” Jesse laughed as Gabriel turned to see the his vines were indeed winding around Jesse’s legs but not in a way that they would bound the cowboy’s legs together like he thought. 

Gabe’s face flushed in embarrassment and tried his best to will the clingy thorny fuckers to release Jesse’s legs, thankfully covered with jeans, before making them wrap around the crate at his feet. 

“Thank ya kindly, Gabe.” Jesse smiled and Gabriel just narrowed his eyes as he glared down at the vines. Fucking things had a mind of their own and grew whenever the fuck they wanted without his say so; fucking parasites. “Back’s done!” He happily announced and patted Gabriel's back proudly. “Gonna snip the excess on yer arms and legs now, Gabe! I’ll get it done quick so we can hop into the shower and you can scrub my back in return!”

Gabriel sighed, rolling his eyes but ultimately didn't mind the trade off. He enjoyed making Jesse feel good as well, especially when he put up with being a part-time landscaper. Several snips later, the vines were dead on the ground and tossed into a bin destined for disposal into the compost later. Gabriel stood up and checked out McCree's work, his body feeling a lot lighter without the parasitic vines.

He kissed Jesse for a split second, knowing that it wouldn't be nearly enough before stripping off his clothing and heading for the shower, the cowboy not far behind him, eager to cash in that back scrub promise from a second ago.

\--

Reaper was a mass of vines under a black trenchcoat and white mask. Jesse’s heart ache terribly as he fired Peacekeeper at the tendrils Mei managed to freeze in place with her cryo blaster. 

So many red flowers. 

So many red flowers on those vines, petals dancing in the air as Reaper let out a howl in pain as Winston’s reconfigured Tesla Canon spewed out fire to torch the sea of vines that filled the warehouse, just as dangerous as Reaper’s own shotguns. Gabriel was hidden in the center of the mass, their goal wasn't to get to him to kill him but force all of his life force into continuing the rapid growth of the briar while trying to keep a safe place for them to keep the pressure on him. 

Talon blew up the Zurich base to take Gabriel away and warp the disease they planted into him to make him a monster. A mass of vines and agony barely keeping himself together under a hood. 

The man that Jesse loved with all his heart was going to die here. Those red flowers that once brought them some form of joy was now scattering into the air like blood. His eyes shoot to Angela and Winston beside him, desperation compelling him to do SOMETHING to help his lover. “Please!! We don't have to kill him!!”

“What would you have us do, McCree?!” Winston spat furiously at the cowboy. Hanzo let another arrow fly to pin a tip to the wall while Genji sliced and diced the best he could to keep their position free of vines. “Talon made Reyes a biological weapon! He’s not even human anymore!!”

“He’s sufferin’!! How does that not count as bein’ human?!” Jack shot back, just as frustrated as Winston. There seemed to be no end to the creation of the vines since Sombra leaked all the data on ‘Project: Death Blossom’ to them, fulfilling Gabriel's final request when Talon sent Reaper to ‘end it’. His stamina was in overdrive, the windows were shattered and letting the vines also use the sunlight to operate without Reaper as an energy source, the red flowers blossoming constantly on the vines as a sign of how badly it was fucking up Gabriel's body. The likelihood of him surviving the fight, much less recovering was in the pits, and even if he did get lucky, he would likely be comatose for the rest of his life. 

Overwatch ten years ago couldn't help Reyes and it was unlikely a miracle would likely spare them and Reyes together. 

“Jesse!!” Hanzo fired an arrow, pinning the vines that were trying to wind up his legs to the ground as Genji quickly cut McCree free. 

Jesse paused at that, his eyes on the sliced up vines while Genji practically yelled at him for zoning out in a life or death situation. Any other time he saw the vines grab anyone, they lashed out violently, wrapping around and digging in hard to deal the most damage possible but there was barely a graze on his boots.

He ran straight into the thicket of vines, the Shimadas racing after him as the vines willingly parted for McCree before several of them went straight for Genji, forcing the two to fight their way backward towards the defense position to keep themselves from being overwhelmed, the hole Jesse disappeared into being swallowed up by the vines. Jesse pressed on, pushing the vines aside with his leather gloves as the noise of battle became more muffled the further he went in. He was terrified, he was going all-in with a shaky hand but he wanted to believe in Gabriel or at least be the one to put him out of his misery if the vines were allowing him to move to the core. His skin was constantly being cut by the thorns but not nearly as much as he should be for pushing his way through a fucking thicket.

“Gabe?! You hear me, Gabe?!” Jesse yelled, tears rolling down his cheeks as the vines now pressed at his back, pushing him forward a few feet rather than parting before the pressure let up. The vines were still in front of him here and he leaned forward, having enough room to reach into his pocket to pull out his phone and turn the flashlight on. 

Brown skin. A tiny amount he could make out just barely if he pushed the vines over enough. He leaned over and gently nudged the vines that were ever so lightly wrapped around his boots with his hands, the vines unwind, making Jesse smile warmly as he put his phone away and offered his gloved hands for the vines to transfer to instead. They were incredibly gentle, a few vines reaching out for his fingers and oh-so-carefully wrapped around them, the thorns barely registering as a threat. He sat down on the only patch of concrete he could see and the briar parted further to allow him to sit more comfortable.

Gabe was somewhere in there, right before him, the sounds of war no longer present in his mind as he watched the vines rest over his shoulders and his lap. They weren’t arranging themselves in a way to trap him, just laying over his body, as if to just be content with touching him, the vines present a multitude of red flowers to him. 

It was beautiful as a hole opened up way above him in the thicket, allowing light to travel down and really show Jesse the wonderful offering Gabriel wanted him to see. The smells and sight was incredible, all these red desert flowers from a type of cactus Jesse couldn’t recall the name of but…

“... If I didn’t know any better, I’d think ya had gone soft on me, Gabe.” Jesse smiled wistfully. “All these pretty flowers for me? Biggest damn bouquet I’ve ever received in my entire life, that’s fer sure.” He chuckled in amusement, the the vines continuing to sprout beautiful flowers all around him, remind him of Gabe’s cheeks whenever Jesse flirted with or kissed him. His smile slowly faded as he watched flowers blossom from the vines around his fingers and found his hands trembling. “I dunno why I’m sittin’ here, Gabe.” Jesse choked as he felt hot tears stream down his cheeks. “You should be scoldin’ me, not givin’ me all these flowers!”

“JESSE!? JESSE, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!” Genji called out from somewhere. Jesse’s head shot up, his face red from crying and desperately in need of a distraction to pull him away from his responsibility.

“GENJI?!”

“OH THANK GOD!” Jack’s voice could be hear hear from somewhere far off and that’s when Jesse really noticed that the fighting had stopped. “MCCREE, YOU RECKLESS FUCKWIT!”

“ARE YOU OKAY, JESSE?!” Angela yelled, cutting off whatever Jack was going to yell next as Jesse hear some rustling. “GENJI, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

A familiar cyborg head poked it’s head over the hole, green light from Genji’s visor looking down at Jesse. “Huh. I thought you would be more cut up than this.”

“Depends on how you look at it, I guess.” Jesse sniffled as a vine tip gently rose up and another flower blossomed in front of his face. 

Genji was silent for a few moments and then nodded his head. “Take the time that you need, alright? I’ll talk to the others.”

“Thanks, Genji.”

Genji pulled away from the opening and likely leapt away to rejoin the rest of Overwatch. An argument broke out soon after but he was pretty sure Gabe was completely spent or at least pacified for now with Jesse being this close to his core. It still was hard to see the area he was in continue to blossom flowers, a testament to how patient Gabriel was even under an immense amount of pain.

“I just- I thought you were dead fer ten years, Gabe.” Jesse croaked as the tears and heartache came rushing back. “Yer in so much pain an’ I can’t seem to let ya go now that I have ya back.”

The smell of the flowers was starting to make his eyes water even more, it was suffocating but he couldn’t even believe to understand the kind of pain Gabe was going through. He stood up slowly, the vines moving to allow him to get up and even support his shaky legs as he pulled out Peacekeeper from it’s holster.

“Help me, Gabe. For once in my life, I don’t know where to aim. Please let me help you.” Jesse pleaded softly and the vines reacted slowly, winding around Jesse’s arm and pointing him in the right direction. He steeled himself, practically sobbing before holding his breath and squeezing the trigger.

One last flower blossomed over the hole Peacekeeper made before all the vines on his arm released him, falling to the ground as Jesse cried long and hard, surrounded by beautiful flowers.

Gabe’s Death Blossoms.


End file.
